Surfacing roofing material



Aug. 13, 1940. Q Q HALL, 2,211,204

SURFACING ROOFING MATERIAL Filed Jan. 29, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR ATTORNEY Aug. 13, 1940. o. c. HALL 2,211,204

SURFACING ROOFING MATERIAL Filed Jan. 29, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I INVENTOR ATTO R N EY Patented Aug. 13, 1940 STATES SURFACHNG ROOFING MATERIAL I Ocie Calcbliliall, Chicago, llli., assignor to The Barrett Company, New York, N. Y a corporation of New Jersey Application January 29,

12 Claims.

roofing saturated with bituminous waterproofing material, coated with bituminous waterproofing material and having colored granular material partially embedded in the coating on the face of the roofing to be exposed to the weather. The expression roofing material is used in a broad sense and is intended to include material employed for roofing, siding and other analogous protective or decorative purposes.

The application of granular surfacing material of one color or blend of colors to coated roofing material during the continuous passage of the roofing material through a roofing machine is well known. It has been proposed to feed a roofing sheet or web beneath a series of hoppers containing differently colored surfacing granules in such manner that the hoppers apply sharply defined bands of differently colored granular material to the sheet. It has also been proposed to feed varying amounts of surfacing material from a plurality of hoppers containing differently colored surfacing material onto a roofing sheet to obtain roofing of mottled, irregular appearance.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and procedure for the manufacture of roofing material of improved variegated regular appearance and enhanced architectural value. c

It is a further object of the invention to pro vide surfacing apparatus for applying a uniform amount of surfacing material over the entire area of a face of a moving roofing sheet in such manner that the appearance of the sheet merges gradually from one color or blend of colors at one longitudinal edge to another color or blend of colors at the other longitudinal edge.

It is another object of the invention to provide a process for applying to a coated roofing sheet a layer of surfacing material gradually varying in color in a direction transverse to the direction of movement of the sheet. Other objects and .advantages will appear hereinafter.

In accordance with the invention, a bitumensaturated and coated felt base roofing sheet is fed longitudinally beneath surfacingapparatus 5o involving a plurality of hoppers containing surfacing material of different colors or color blends, which hoppers are equipped with discharge outlets gradually varying in size in a direction transverse to the direction of movement of the sheet.

These hoppers feedstreams of differently colored 1938, Serial No. 187,609

surfacing material, the stream from each hopper varying gradually in size in a direction widthwise of the sheet, into another hopper where the streams are blended to form a mixture gradually varying in color widthwise of the sheet. The blend of the granules is discharged from the blending hopper in a stream of uniform size onto the roofing sheet so that a uniform amount of surfacing material is applied over the entire area of the sheet to be surfaced. It will be appreciated that the proportions of differently colored constituents constituting the stream of surfacing material fed from the blending hopper vary gradually transversely of the sheet, e. g. the stream may be constituted predominantly of red granules at one side of the sheet and predominantly of green granules at the other side of the sheet, the intermediate portions'of the stream shading gradually from red to green. The granules are partially embedded in the bituminous coating of the sheet to form thereon a surfacing layer gradually and continuously varying in appearance across the entire width of the sheet. The appearance of the surfacing layer is preferably uniform at all points in any line extending in the direction of movement of the sheet. The surfaced sheet may be employed as roll' roofing or cut longitudinally or transversely into strip or individual shingles o-f variegated appearance.

In the accompanying drawing, wherein are shown for purposes of exemplification preferred embodiments of the invention,

Fig. l is a-view in side elevation, somewhat diagrammatic in character, of one form of my invention,

Figs. 2', 3 and 4 are elevational views of the hoppers shown in Fig. 1, taken in the direction of the arrow a,

Fig. 5 is a plan view of a roofing sheet surfaced in accordance with-the invention, illustrating a shingle cutting layout,

Fig. 6 is a view in side elevation, somewhat diagrammatic in character, illustrating another form of the invention,

Riga-7 8, 9 and 10 are elevational views of four of the hoppers shown in Fig. 6, taken in the direction of the arrow b,

Fig. 11 is an elevational view of the blending hopper of Fig. 6 taken in the direction of the arrow 0, and

Fig. 12 is a plan view of a roofing sheet surfaced in accordance with the invention illustrating another shingle cutting layout.

Referring to the drawings, with particular reference to Fig. 1, a sheet of fibrous material H], which may be and preferably is the usual roofing felt made of rag fiber, paper stock or other fibrous material and saturated with bituminous waterproofing material such as asphalt, as wellknown in this art, is fed beneath coating spout H which applies a layer of asphalt or other coating material to the upper face of the sheet and between coating rolls 2 and I3. Roll |3rotates in a bath M of molten asphalt and applies a coating layer to the lower face of the sheet. Thereafter the sheet passes beneath surfacing apparatus involving hopper |6 containing granular surfacing material, such as crushed slate, of one color or blend of colors, e. g. red surfacing material, hopper containing granular surfacing material of another color or blend of colors, e. g. green surfacing material, and hopper I8 into which hoppers l6 and I1 discharge; the surfacing material may be fed from suitable sources of supply through conduits |6, H to hoppers I6 and M respectively. Hoppers I6, I1 and I8 are equipped with fluted distributor rolls 28, 2|, 22, respectively, which may be driven from the other roofing instrumentalities in a manner well known in this art to discharge surfacing material through the discharge outlets 24, 28 and 36 of the respective hoppers.

The discharge outlets 24 and 28 of hoppers l6 and I1 diminish gradually in cross-sectional area in opposite directions widthwise of the roofing sheet. Referring more particularly to Fig. 2, the

7 upper side of outlet 24 is defined by the lower edge of plate 25 bolted at 26 or otherwise secured to the hopper wall in such manner that the lower edge of the plate slopes upwardly from distributor roll 28 in the left to right direction and the cross-sectional area of the outlet gradually increases from left to right. Thus the amount of surfacing material fed from hopper I6 gradually increases in the direction from left to right, i. e. the rate of feed increases from left to right, as viewed in Fig. 2. Referring to Fig. 3 the upper side of discharge outlet 28 is defined by the lower edge of plate 30 secured at 3| to the hopper wall so that the cross-sectional area of the outlet gradually increases from right to left and the stream of. surfacing material fed by the distributor roll 2| into blending hopper 8 gradually increases in volume from right to left, i. e. the rate of feed increases from right to left. In operation, .distributor rolls 20 and 2| are simultaneously driven to discharge into blending hopper l8 streams of granular surfacing material gradually diminishing in volume in opposite directions, respectively, widthwise of the roofing sheet; the sum of the amounts of material fed by hoppers l6 and I1 is preferably uniform widthwise of the roofing sheet so that blending hopper |8 receives surfacing material at a uniform rate throughout its length. Hence, the surfacing material at one end of hopper I8 consists predominantly of material from hopper l6 and at the other end consists predominantly of material from hopper l1, the proportions of material from hoppers l6 and I1 varying gradually from end to end of hopper IS. The discharge outlet 36 of hopper I8 is formed by plate 34 secured to the hopper wall; it will be observed that outlet 36 is of uniform cross-sectional area so that hopper l8 discharges a stream of surfacing material at a uniform rate over the entire width of the roofing sheet to form a surfacing layer thereon; this stream and surfacing layer are constituted of differently colored constituents from the hoppers l6 and I1, the proportions of which constituents vary in a direction widthwise of the sheet as determined by the configuration of the discharge outlets of the hoppers. The proportions of differently colored granules, constituting the stream at any given point therein, preferably do not vary so that the appearance of the sheet is uniform at all points in any line extending in the direction of movement of. the sheet.

The surfaced sheet passes from beneath hopper |8 about reversing roll 40 which functions to embed the mineral granules partially in the plastic coating. Any excess granules may fall from the sheet into hopper I8 or may otherwise be disposed of. In the continued passage of the sheet, it travels next under hopper 4| equipped with distributor roll 42. Powdered talc, mica or other anti-stick composition capable of rendering the back of the sheet non-cementitious is disposed in hopper 4| and is discharged therefrom onto the sealback coating on the back of the sheet, the sheet then passing over a reversing roll 43, which partially embeds the anti-stick material into the coating and imparts a smooth surface to the back of the sheet. The sheet may then be passed over calendering and cooling rolls (not shown) and rolled up as roll roofing or fed to shingle cutting mechanism (not shown) where it is cut into shingle elements of the desired shape.

Figs. 6 to 11 depict a somewhat different arrangement of surfacing apparatus in accordance with the invention. The bitumen-saturated and coated roofing sheet II] is passed from the coating appliance beneath surfacing equipment involving a series of hoppers 46, 41, 48, equipped with distributor rolls 48', 49, 50, which discharge granular material of different colors onto inclined guide plate 5| which in turn conducts the material to blending hopper 53 equipped with distributor roll 54. Hopper 55, equipped with distributor roll 56, discharges directly into hopper 53. As will be observed by reference to Figs. 7 to 11, hopper 46 is provided with plate 58 secured to the hopper wall and forming discharge outlet 59 of uniform cross-sectional area; hopper 41 is equipped with plate 6| forming discharge outlet 62 of gradually diminishing cross-sectional area in one direction widthwise of the sheet; hopper 48 is provided with plate 64 forming discharge outlet 65 of. gradually diminishing cross-sectional area in the other direction widthwise of the sheet; hopper 55 is equipped with plate 61 forming discharge outlet 68 of gradually diminishing cross-sectional area from the ends to the middle thereof; and blending hopper 53 is equipped with plate 10 forming discharge out let 1| of uniform cross-sectional area. Simultaneous rotation of distributor rolls 48, 49, 58 and 56 discharges streams of differently colored granular material from hoppers 46, 41, 48, and 55, respectively, into hopper 53 to form therein a blend of differently colored granules, the relative proportions of material of respective colors varying from end to end of the hopper. It will be appreciated that this blend is constituted of a uniform amount of surfacing material of the desired basic color, e. g. red, from hopper 46 and varying amounts of differently colored material from hoppers 41, 48, and 55. Hopper 53 discharges a stream of surfacing material at a uniform rate over the entire width of the roofing sheet; this stream is constituted of differently colored constituents from the hoppers 46, 41, 48, 55, the proportions of which constituents vary in a direction widthwise of the sheet as determined by the configuration of the discharge outlets of the hoppers.

Thereafter the sheet may be passed about reversing roll 13 which functions partially to embed the granules in the plastic coating, under hoppers 75 equipped with distributor roll 16, which discharges anti-stick material on the sealback coating on the back of the sheet, about reversing roll H which functions partially to embed the anti-stick material in the sealback coating. The sheet may then be passed through the usual calendering and cooling apparatus and be rolled into roll roofing or cut into shingles.

Figs. 5 and 12 illustrate layouts for cutting shingles from roofing surfaced. in accordance with the invention. In Fig. 5 there is illustrated a layout for cutting the sheet transversely along lines 80 into strip shingles having tabs 8| separated by slots 82 along the edge to be exposed. The shingles vary gradually from one color or blend of colors, e. g. red, at one end to another color or blend of colors, e. g. green, at the other end. Fig. 12 shows a layout for cutting the roofing longitudinally along line 83 and broken lines 84 and transversely along staggered lines 85 into shingles of wellknown shape having tabs separated by complemental spaces along one longitudinal edge. This method of cutting, it will be ob-' served, produces shingles, each of which is of gradually varying color, from the upper to the lower edge thereof. Furthermore, this cutting procedure produces shingles of different shades of color, e. g. where, as shown in Fig. 12, a sheet of suflicient width to produce four shingles is employed, the appearance of each of the shingles A, B, C and D is different, thereby contributing to the variegated color efiect and enhanced architectural value of the roof formed by laying the shingles.

Since different embodiments of the invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing should be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

I claim:

1. Surfacing apparatus comprisingin combination means for feeding a coated roofing sheet longitudinally, a plurality of sources of supply of surfacing material of different appearence, means for feeding streams of surfacing material at different rates from different portions of said respective sources of supply, means for blending said streams to form a mixture constituted of constituents of different appearance from said sources of supply, the proportions of which constituents vary gradually in a direction widthwise of the sheet, and means for feeding said mixture onto said sheet to form thereon a surfacing layer varying gradually in appearance in a direction widthwise of the sheet.

2. Surfacing apparatus comprising in combination means for feeding longitudinally a roofing sheet coated with plastic waterproofing material, a source of supply of surfacing material of one appearance, another source of supply of surfacing material of different appearance, means for feeding from one of saidsources a stream of surfacing material extendlng widthwise of said sheet at a rate gradually increasing in one direction widthwise of the sheet, means for feeding from the other of said sources a stream of surfacing material extending widthwise of the sheet at a rate gradually increasing in the opposite direction widthwise of the sheet, means for blending said streams to form a composite stream comprising constituents of different appearance from said respective sources of supply, the proportions of which constituents vary gradually in a direction widthwise of the sheet, and applying said composite stream to the roofing sheet, and means for partially embedding the surfacing material into the coating of said sheet to form thereon a surfacing layer varying gradually in appearance widthwise of the sheet, said surfacing layer being of uniform appearance at all points in any line parallel to the directionof movement of the sheet.

3. Surfacing apparatus comprising in combination a hopper for surfacing material of one color, another hopper for surfacing material of another color, said hoppers extending transversely to the direction of movement of said roofing sheet, said hoppers being provided with discharge outlets varying in size widthwise of the sheet, means for feeding streams of surfacing material from said hoppers at rates determined by the size of said discharge outlets, means for blending together the surfacing material of said streams and conducting the blended material to said roofing sheet to form thereon a surfacing layer varying in color in a direction widthwise of the sheet.

4. Apparatus comprising in combination means for coating a roofing sheet with plastic waterproofing material, means for feeding said sheet longitudinally, a plurality of hoppers containing granular material of different colors located above the path of movement of said sheet and extending transversely to the direction of feed i of the sheet, one of said hoppers being provided with an elongated discharge outlet gradually diminishing in width in one direction transverse to the direction of feed ofv said sheet, another of said hoppers being provided with an elongated discharge outlet gradually diminishing in width in the other direction transverse to the direction of feed of ,the sheet, distributor rolls in said discharge outlets for feeding streams of granular material through said outlets, the rate of fiow of granular material through the outlet of one of said hoppers gradually diminishing in one direction transverse to the direction of feed of the sheet and the rate of flow of granular mate- 'rial through the outlet of said other hopper gradually diminishing in the, opposite direction transverse to the direction of feed of the sheet, means for blending said streams to form a composite stream of granular material and feeding said composite stream onto said roofing, said composite stream being constituted of differently colored constituents from said hoppers, the proportions .of said constituents varyinggradually in a direction widthwise of said sheet thereby forming on said sheet a layer of surfacing material varying gradually in' color from one longitudinal edge to the other thereof, said surfacing layer being of uniform color at all points in any line parallel to the direction of movement of the sheet.

v 5. Apparatus comprising in combination means for coating a roofing sheet with plastic waterproofing material, means for feeding said sheet longitudinally, a plurality of hoppers containing granular material 'of different colors located above the path of movement of said sheet and extending transversely to the direction of feed of the sheet, one of said hoppers being provided with an elongated discharge outlet .gradually diminishing in width in one direction transverse to the direction of feed of said sheet, another of said hoppers being provided with an elongated discharge outlet gradually diminishing in width in the other direction transverse to the direction of feed of the sheet, distributor rolls in said discharge outlets for feeding streams of granualr material through said outlets, the

rate of flow of granular material through the outlet of one of said hoppers gradually diminishing in one direction transverse to the direction of feed of the sheet and the rate of fiow of granular material through the outlet of said other hopper gradually diminishing in the opposite direction transverse to the direction of feed of the sheet, a blending hopper for receiving the streams fed from said first named hoppers, a distributor roll in said blending hopper extending widthwise of said sheet, said distributor roll feeding from said blending hopper onto said sheet a stream of granular material constituted of differently colored constituents from said first named hoppers, the proportions of said constituents varying gradually in a direction widthwise of said sheet thereby forming on said sheet a layer of surfacing material varying gradually in color from one longitudinal edge to the other thereof, said surfacing layer being of uniform appearance at all points in any line parallel to the direction of movement of the sheet.

6. Apparatus comprising in combination means for applying a coating layer of plastic waterproofing material to a roofing sheet, means for feeding said sheet longitudinally, a plurality of hoppers containing surfacing material of different color located above and extending transversely to the direction of movement of said sheet, said hoppers being provided with elongated discharge outlets extending transversely to the direction of movement of the sheet and distributor rolls rotating in said outlets for discharging from said hoppers streams of surfacing material of different colors, the width of the discharge outlets of at least two of said hoppers diminishing in opposite directions transverse to the direction of movement of said sheet whereby more granular material is discharged through one end than through the other of each of said outlets, means including a guide plate for conducting said streams of surfacing material to said roofing sheet to form thereon a surfacing layer constituted of differently colored constituents, the proportions of which vary gradually in a direction Widthwise of the sheet as determined by the width of the discharge outlets of said hoppers, said surfacing layer being in uniform appearance at all points in any line parallel to the direction of movement of the sheet.

7. Apparatus comprising in combination means for applying a coating layer of plastic waterproofing material to a roofing sheet, means for feeding said sheet longitudinally, a plurality of hoppers containing surfacing material of different color located above and extending transversely to the direction of movement of said sheet, said hoppers being provided with'elongated discharge outlets extending transversely to the direction of movement of the sheet and distributor rolls rotating in said outlets for discharging from said hoppers streams of surfacing material of different colors, the width of the discharge outlets of at least two of said hoppers diminishing in opposite directions transverse to the direction of movement of said sheet whereby more surfacing material is discharged through one end than through the other of each of said outlets, a blending hopper, means including a guide plate for conducting said streams of surfacing material to said blending hopper, said blending hopper being provided with an elongated discharge outlet of uniform width extending widthwise across the roofing sheet and a distributor roll rotating in said discharge outlet to discharge therefrom a stream of surfacing material extending across said sheet, said last named stream being constituted of differently colored constituents, the proportions of which vary gradually in a direction widthwise of the sheet as determined by the Width of the discharge outlets of said hoppers containing differently colored surfacing material thereby forming on said roofing sheet a layer of surfacing material varying gradually in color from one side edge to the other thereof.

8. A process for surfacing roofing comprising feeding a; coated roofing sheet longitudinally, feeding surfacing material of one color from a source of supply thereof at a rate varying gradually in a direction transverse to the direction of movement of said sheet, feeding another stream of surfacing material of different color from another source at a rate gradually varying in a direction transverse to the direction of movement of said sheet, combining the streams fed from said sources of supply to form a composite stream constituted of differently colored constituents from said sources of supply, the proportions of which constituents vary gradually in a direction widthwise of said sheet, and ap plying said composite stream to said roofing sheet to form thereon a surfacing layer varying gradually in color widthwise of the sheet and of uniform appearance at all locations on a line parallel to the direction of feed of the sheet.

9. A process for applying to roofing a layer of surfacing material gradually varying in color from one to the other longitudinal edge of said sheet comprising feeding the sheet longitudinally, applying thereto a layer of plastic waterproofing material, feeding from a source of surfacing material of one color a stream of such material at a rate gradually diminishing in one direction transverse to the direction of movement of the roofing sheet, feeding from another source of surfacing material of another color a stream of surfacing material at a rate gradually diminishing in the opposite direction transverse to the direction of movement of the roofing sheet, combining said streams to form a blend of surfacing material and applying the resultant blend to the sheet to form thereon a layer of surfacing material constituted of differently colored constituents from said respective sources of supply, the proportions of which constituents vary gradually widthwise of the sheet, said layer being of sub-' stantially the same appearance at all points along any line parallel to the longitudinal median line of the sheet.

10. Surfacing apparatus comprising means for feeding a roofing sheet, a source of supply of surfacing material, means for feeding surfacing material from said source of supply at a rate varying in a direction transverse to the direction of movement of the sheet and applying the surfacing material to the sheet, another source of supply of surfacing material of different appearance from the material of the first named source of supply, and means for feeding surfacing material from said second named source of supply at a rate varying in a directiontransverse to the difeeding from a source of supply of surfacing material a stream of such material at a rate varyingin a direction transverse to the direction of movement of the sheet, applying said stream to said sheet, feeding from a second source of supply of surfacing material of different appearance from said first named source a stream of surfacing material of difierent appearance from said first named stream at a rate varying in a direction transverse to the direction of movement of the roofing sheet, and applying said last named stream to said sheet whereby said streams form on said sheet a surfacing layer varying in appearance in a direction transverse to the direction of the movement of the sheet.

12. A process of surfacing a roofing sheet which comprises moving the sheet, feeding from a source of supply of surfacing material a stream of such material increasing graduallyin amount in a direction transverse to the direction of movement of the roofing sheet, feeding from another source of surfacing material of different appearance a stream of such material decreasing gradually in amount in said direction transverse to the direction of movement of the sheet, and applying said streams to said sheet to form thereon a surfacing layer varying in appearance in a direction transverse to the direction of movement of the sheet.

OCDJ CALEB HALL, 

